FAITH CAPSULE: Experience the power of God.

Ezekiel 37:1-14

The Lord God is the Commander, He alone is the only Commanding commander. Power belongs to God alone. The word of God is the source of God’s power to give life and to take life. Psalm 138:2 recorded about the word of God, “I will worship toward Your holy temple, and praise Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; for You have magnified Your word above all Your name.”
The word of God is the Commanding commander, His name is magnified above all His name. The hand of God located Ezekiel and set him amid valley which was full of bones. The bones were very dry and lifeless. God asked Ezekiel if the bones could have life again and Ezekiel responded to “…O Lord God, You know.” (Ezekiel 37:3) In deed and in truth, only God knows and there is none that knows like Him. In His word, there is power to bring back life for whatever the enemy has taken away in the life of man. Can you believe in the power of God to return life? Are you having challenge which is written off as hopeless? The same God which gave life to dead bone is still the same with power to give life where there is death.
Ezekiel’s response to God provoked God’s reaction as He gave Ezekiel His command to speak life back into dry bones. Ezekiel spoke as command by God; Ezekiel prophesied and the dry bones regained life. Ezekiel 37:10 recorded, “So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.” Just as Ezekiel received His command, so Jesus has given His word of command to every man that will believe today. It is written, “And these signs will follow those who believe: In my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark16:17) The power in His word remains today except but the world of today is not engaging the command of God.
What is missing in the life of believers today?
Ezekiel allowed the Spirit of God to set him up where God wanted Him. Are you going to allow the Spirit of God set you up? Take to the position of God for your life to experience the same power of God which gave life to dead bone before Ezekiel in the amid of dead bones. God is true and faithful to deliver by His word. Ezekiel knew better by confessing that “…O Lord God, You know.” Consistent confession that only God knows will make the difference in the life of true believer.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of positive confession in your way of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Obey the word of God which is His presence to take charge in your life.

Isaiah 55

Isaiah 55:11 recorded, “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
The word of God is God. The way of God is in His word. The way of God is His presence. God is truth to His word. Psalmist testified the word of God, “…For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.” Moses in His journey asked God for His way and God responded in His word saying “…My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14) Obviously, the word of God is His way; His way is His presence.
When God speaks, His word cannot be denied.
Obeying the word of God is what delivers the promises of God in His word. However, turning away from the word of God that sounds in man’s direction is an act of disobedience that sets man up for self-destruction. Interestingly, man is constantly violating the word of God consciously or unconsciously. Violating the word of God is disobeying the word of God which denies man from God’s presence. Are you in disobedient to the word of God? Are you in the process of walking away from His presence?
There is no excuse to turn away from where God is turning man to. Walking in the word of God which is His presence does not result to pain but gain. Jonah received the word of God but turned away for His presence and pain answered to him. The book of Jonah 1:2-3 recorded, “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”  But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so, he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.” Jonah disobeyed God when he rose as commanded by God but his rising was in disobedience to the presence of God. Are you rising in opposite direction to the word of God?
In the presence of God there is deliverance and preservation in the journey of life. God promised Moses with rest in His presence. Obey the word of God to let His presence take charge in your life.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of obeying His word in all your journey all the days He has given you.

FAITH CAPSULE: God’s possibility is not limited.

Jeremiah 52

Jehoiachin was in captivity for thirty-seven years when God’s hand that is not short raised his head and brought him out of captivity. Jeremiah 52:31 recorded, “Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.” God used Evil-Merodach, the king of Babylon and son of Nebuchadnezzar, to lift the head of Jehoiachin. One should believe that God can use anyone to lift one from every challenge that is keeping one’s head down. God alone can change one’s position from persecuted to one that presides over persecutors. When God remembers, He also rescues. Believe in Him that your positon of pain today shall be changed to position of gain.
Evil-Merodach was in the hand of God to lift the head of Jehoiachin.
God used Evil-Merodach to rescue Jehoiachin, God also used Evil-Merodach to change the garment of Jehoiachin from that of a prisoner to that of one who eats regularly before the king all the days of his life. Proverbs also encouraged us about the hand of God, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.” (Proverbs 21:1)
Believe it that God is true to perform and to perfect His word.
God’s possibility is not limited. God is the same God yesterday, today and tomorrow. Believe God, do not believe man for your deliverance and preservation.
God alone sought out Daniel in the den of hungry lions. God with His unmeasurable possibility caused the lions not to have appetite for fresh meat despite the lions were starved for meat. Like Daniel, do you believe in seeking God by waiting on Him in prayer concerning your challenge that seems unmovable? Concerning your challenge, persist, insist and resist in your prayer. Your challenge today is not time to stop waiting on God in prayer. Daniel slept over night in the den of lions as the King went early to check on Daniel saying, “Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste to the den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The king spoke, saying to Daniel, “Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?” Then Daniel said to the king, “O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions’ mouths, so that they have not hurt me…” (Daniel 6:19-22)
God is still in the business of possibility regardless of impossibility.

Prayer for today: Ask for God’s hand to turn around all your impossibility to possibility.

FAITH CAPSULE: Serving God consistently is the evidence of integrity before God.

Job 1, 2:1-10

To be identified by God or to live life before God as integrity one is not by empty mouth or by walk that is not right before God. Empty mouth is mouth which full of the word of God but with no action that is rooted in the word of God. Also walk which is not right before God will not count for man before God as integrity. Job was full of the word of God as a result he walked right before God as a believer.
Satan attempted Job and his assault on Job was not enough to derail Job from his walk in the Lord.
Is your life an integrity before God?
What is it that is attempting against your walk before God?
From the first assault to the second, and throughout the whole life of Job, it was clear that Job was a man that will not digress from his stand in the Lord. From the time of Job’s well being through the time of the Satan’s assaults on his life, he maintained his consistency to be serving God. Serving God with consistency is the evidence of integrity before God.
The Bible described Job as none any other character as it is written, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:1) Job was consistent serving God by walking right before God.
In Job’s adversity, he received devastating news of the loss of his property and the death of his sons and daughters on the same day, yet he did not complain to God. It is written, “Then Job arose, tore his robe, and shaved his head; and he fell to the ground and worshiped.” (Job 1:20) As if the first assault was not enough, Satan attacked the second time with boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. After the first assault, God had testified about Job as a man that holds fast to his integrity (Job 1:3). Job’s wife knew that Job was a man of integrity as she attempted to unplug Job from his integrity stating, “…Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” (Job 1:9) Job refused not to abide with his wife’s statement which was meant to unplug his integrity.
Living life before God as integrity is the way to regain from all adversity of the enemy.
Job’s documentation was recorded in Job 42:12-17 “Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning…In all the land were found no women so beautiful as the daughters of Job… After this Job lived one hundred and forty years, and saw his children and grandchildren for four generations.  So Job died, old and full of days.”
God is faithful to one that is faithful to His name.

Prayer for God: Ask for the grace to live life of integrity before God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Obeying God’s word is a sacrifice.

Genesis 22

Giving God a reasonable sacrifice will provoke unexpected blessing from God.
In Genesis 22:2, God spoke to Abraham, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” God’s word for Abraham was costly. Sacrifice can be challenging and can be emotionally exhausting. Obedience sacrifice is to honor God which shall surely elevate man in every area of life to the glory of God.
Are you obeying to God as the Lord leads? Are you taking a self-step to obediently sacrifice to God?
Abraham did not questioned God when his one and only son Isaac was asked by God for burnt offering. Imagine, Abraham rose early in the morning to God’s word; he did not consult any man but moved in direction of God’s word. At the ground of his burnt offering of his only son Isaac, it was certain in the heart of Abraham to obey fully to God. Abraham received another call as stated in Genesis 22:11-13, “But the Angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.” And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.”
What are you giving up to God? What are you holding from God? What is it you cannot give to God which is in position to give beyond expectation? Think from the depth of heart and know that all that you have, all that you are and all that you can be is in the hand of God. It is clear in the pages of the Bible that every reasonable obedience sacrifice will provoke God’s attention in every area of life. Will you consider the kind of sacrifice that you are rendering unto God? If your sacrifice is reasonable He will give unexpected reasonable visitation.
Abraham’s sacrificial obedience provoked God’s blessing as stated, “…By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing, and have not withheld your son, your only son— blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.  In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice.”  Obeying God’s word is a sacrifice which provoked unexpected blessing of God for Abraham.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of obedience to His word in all areas of life.